History
Built in 1815, The Macquarie Arms Hotel was first built by Richard Fitzgerald in Thompson Square. He was given this allotment by Governor Lachlan Macquarie – this was given on the condition that Fitzgerald would build an inn at least two stories tall. This wasn’t just a kind gift – this would spare the government the cost of building such a large structure.
On 15 July 1815, the Sydney Gazette carried the following public notice:
“A large and commodious House having been some time since erected, and lately completed, at a very considerable expense, in the Town of Windsor, for an Inn; and a suitable person having been engaged by the Proprietor for keeping the same, Notice is hereby given, that the said Inn, called “The Macquarie Arms”, and kept by Thomas Ranson, who formerly was an Innkeeper in England, will be opened for the accommodation of the Public on Monday the 31st of this present Month of July”.
The hotel was opened two weeks later by Governor Macquarie.
The hotel, also known as the Royal Hotel, was envisioned by Governor Macquarie following his tour of the district in 1811. Governor Macquarie wrote about the event in his diary:
“I gave Mr. Fitzgerald a large allotment in the square on the express condition of his building immediately thereon a handsome commodious inn of brick or stone and to be at least two stories high.”
Some of the first guests at the hotel were the 73rd Regiment Red Coat Soldiers, who were stationed at Windsor. It became known as the Mess Hotel – the soldiers stayed on the upper floor and the convicts stayed in the cellar (even though their long, hard days of labour had built the inn).
Even though it’s known as the oldest inn on the Australian mainland, it wasn’t always a pub. From 1840 to 1872, it was used as a private home but then was run as a hotel by the Bushell party from 1873 to 1900.
Almost 200 years later, this heritage-listed hotel is known as a historic building of significance – as it’s the most intact major commercial building dating back to pre-1820 Australian colonial history. Visitors can still see traces of its fascinating history, such as a plaque on the hotel’s wall that shows the height of the great floor of 1867 (the greatest flood recorded in the district). The hotel’s cedar joinery, circular staircase, stone flagging and a large Georgian doorway are other prominent architectural features.
Heritage Listing
The Macquarie Arms Hotel is of exceptional significance, playing a pivotal role in Macquarie’s town plan for Windsor, the Macquarie Arms Hotel is the most substantial building to form part of Thompson Square, a Georgian town square on mainland Australia. The building contains numerous rare and aesthetically superior elements, and continues to be widely recognised for its importance to the understanding of settlement, urban design, and architecture during the colonial period, while its historic associations carry strong cultural messages of the period’s society and government. It has been long established by art and architectural historians, and has a prominent place in the contemporary social life of Windsor.
Macquarie Arms Hotel was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.
The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales’s history.
The Macquarie Arms Hotel is closely associated with a number of significant social and political figures in the Hawkesbury District during the period of its early development. The building of the hotel was an express condition by Governor Macquarie of his grant of a large allotment of land to Richard Fitzgerald. The hotel was built to specific requirements made by Governor Macquarie that the inn be handsome, commodious, of brick or stone and to be at least two stories high.
The allotment of land – and subsequently the situation of the hotel – was in Thompson Square, named by Governor Macquarie in honour of Andrew Thompson Esqr, Justice of the Peace and Principal Magistrate of the district, and reputed as the father or founder of Green Hills. Andrew Thompson had arrived in NSW as a convict.
Richard Fitzgerald, who promptly built the hotel in accordance with Governor Macquarie’s specifications, had arrived as a convict in New South Wales in 1791. By 1800 Fitzgerald had been appointed by Governor Hunter as superintendent of agriculture in Toongabbie, and in 1810 Governor Macquarie appointed him Government Storekeeper.
Fitzgerald appears to have retired from public office in the 1820s. The 1828 census lists him as the possessor of 2000 acres of land, and in conjunction with his farming pursuits, he remained active in local affairs and was elected president of the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society which managed the hospital at Windsor.
Richard Fitzgerald and his family lived in a house alongside the Macquarie Arms in George Street, Windsor. His son, Robert, married Elizabeth Rouse of Rouse Hill in 1841, and in 1843 stood for the first partly elected parliament in New South Wales against William Bowman of Richmond.
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